Before Saturday, Kansas State had lost at home to ranked opponents just four times in the Jerome Town era.
But Don has suffered five such losses with the Wildcats since BYU visited Manhattan.
The No. 10 Cougars defeated Kansas State 83-73 in Saturday’s Big 12 opener, marking BYU’s first ten-game winning streak since the Jimmer Fredette era more than a decade ago.
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“Obviously, BYU is a great team and Kevin (Young) did a great job and was very proud of our guys for their effort,” Tang told reporters after the game.
“We have to continue to get better. To win or lose this game, we have to get better. We have some outstanding issues, but they are correctable. I know the hearts of our players, so I know we will improve in the areas that need improvement.”
Before Saturday, the Wildcats ranked in the top 10 in the country in three-point shooting percentage, but they hit just three of 21 attempts from beyond the arc against the Cougars.
“Well, they didn’t go in, you know, the ones we shot, they had good shots,” Don said. “I think we turned down four or five opportunities that we should have been ready to take, but we weren’t ready to take the shot. Some of that was down to (BYU’s) length, right, those finishes, but some of it, you know, I don’t know why we didn’t take certain shots that we normally would have taken.
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“I said at one point, ‘Man, if we don’t shoot the ball, we can’t shoot the 3,’ you know. That’s one of the strengths of our team, so, you know, a lot of credit goes to BYU because the percentage of 3-pointers we took, as opposed to the percentage of 2-pointers, was so high. We’ve got to look at the film and figure that out.”
Kansas State did force BYU into a total of 19 turnovers, but that defensive success wasn’t enough to frustrate the Cougars.
“We want to be a more aggressive team. That’s great, but when you force an opponent into 19 turnovers, you can’t be 17 points fewer than them. You need to be 27 points fewer than them because a lot of those are live ball turnovers, so we have to take advantage,” Tang said.
“I didn’t think we took advantage of that, and I thought they controlled the tempo of the game in the second half. We didn’t play fast enough. We didn’t.”
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BYU superstar AJ Dybantsa, once a recruiting target at Kansas State, once again excelled in his first appearance in the Big 12, finishing with 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.
With 24 points, Dibansa is now the country’s leading scorer with an average of 23.1 points per game.
“You know, I’ve been following AJ since he was in seventh grade and I love him and his family. You know, I had a great time recruiting him,” Don said.
“I’ve watched him play this season and he’s one of the most efficient players, and today he was very efficient again, you know, 24 points on 15 shots.”
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Kansas State drops to 9-5 on the season and 0-1 in Big 12 play and has tough road trips against No. 1 Arizona and Arizona State ahead.
“I want (our players) to walk away with confidence, and if this is a top-10 team in the country and people are saying this team can win a national championship and we’re not performing at the level we’re capable of, then, I mean, the ceiling is high, so we should be very confident and excited about getting back into practice and improving,” Tang said.
